YOU FUCKING HATE ME, PRINCESS.
The Yokohama station was coming up as Kliment stood in the aisle with Tangerine and Lemon, keeping her back to her brother's body. She instructed both hitmen to step off the train and search for anyone leaving with their silver briefcase. Lemon would step off on the right-hand exits while Tangerine would take the left, needing eyes on both sides of the platform.
"We'll make sure he doesn't step a foot off this train," Tangerine assured Kliment. Then he looked at Lemon. "You see the case, deal with whoever has it."
"All right, how do I do that? Talk to him, or, like, talk to him?" Lemon asked, gesturing to the gun underneath his denim jacket.
Tangerine looked at him unimpressed. "I don't know, why don't you tell him about the story about how Gordon met Percy, and how Percy's now bleeding from his fucking eye sockets! Fuckin' kill him—"
"Don't fucking kill him," Klim interrupted. She glared back and forth at the twins. "If you find him, bring him back to me."
"What are you gonna do? Question him?" Lemon asked, tilting his head.
"If the person with that briefcase killed my brother, then I'm going to tear his fingernails out, I'm going to detach his eyeballs from his optic nerves, I'm going to tear his kidney out like it's a real-life game of Operation."
"Christ," Tangerine muttered, seeing the darkness in her eyes. Suddenly, the thought that she was the White Death's daughter didn't seem so farfetched. "Yeah, we'll bring 'em right to you, Princess. Put a bow on him and everythin'."
As the bullet train slowly began to stop, the trio split up. As each brother stepped off the train, Kliment remained in the car, keeping watch over Vasili's body.
No, her relationship with her brother hadn't been perfect, but it was better than the nothing she shared with Gedeon. She certainly cared more for him than their father. Kliment couldn't help but wonder if he'd even bat an eye over Vasili's death — after all, she was the one that the twins' order said to protect the most.
Tangerine argued at first about leaving her unattended, even if only for a minute. But in a matter of seconds, Kliment had her hidden knife digging into his neck and his revolver in hand, which she'd swiped without him even knowing.
Chips and tea off a snack cart weren't the only things she'd ever stolen in her life, she told him.
After that, Tangerine shut up and got his gun back, trusting that she could be left alone for sixty seconds. And she could, going completely unbothered along with her brother's body as people got on and off the train, none of whom had a silver briefcase in hand as they passed her.
Once alone with her brother, she couldn't help the guilt coursing through her veins all of the sudden. Vasili's last request was that she cut him loose just like she had herself. Now, because she wanted to play a little joke on him, he was dead. Perhaps he could've defended himself — could still be alive — if she freed him.
Kliment didn't have much alone time with Vasili, though it was enough time to pick up the discarded Percy sticker and press it to the inside of her forearm, right over the tattoo for her sister without being questioned by the twins for doing so. Lemon was right — Vasili was a Percy.
It wasn't long before the doors were sliding shut and the train was taking off at top speed yet again. The twins returned to their seats, it evident from their expressions that they didn't find the thief as they slid into their seats.
"If the case is still on the train, so is the one who took it and maybe the one who did this," Kliment said, keeping her eyes on Vasili. Blood was still slowly trickling from his eyes — she could see it fall under the ridiculous glasses. It only fueled her anger.
Then Kliment got out of her seat, looking down the aisle. Tangerine grabbed her wrist and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Where do you think you're going?"
"To look for the briefcase," she said slowly as if he was stupid. "One of you stay here with him, the other can check the other half of the train."
"No way am I letting you run around unaccompanied," Tangerine said, standing as well. "Maybe if we get the case and the one responsible for your brother's death, we escape without our arms. But if you get hurt, we're dead. Six feet fucking down, dead. I'm not leaving your side."
Kliment was a little annoyed over him not trusting her to take care of herself but didn't make a big deal out of it. "Fine," she said, shrugging. "Then you're coming with me. We'll check the short end of cars first then come back, check on Lemon, and then take the long end. Or do you have a problem with that as well?"
Tangerine put his hands up in defense with a condescending smile. "You're in charge, Princess."
As the two walked away, beginning to bicker because Klim didn't want him to call her Princess even though she secretly loved it, Lemon watched them go with a shake of his head. He glanced over at Vasili, acting as if the boy was still alive as he spoke to him.
"My brother is so gonna shag your sister if he doesn't get his limbs chopped off."
Together, Kliment and Tangerine carefully searched each train compartment for the silver briefcase without looking too inconspicuous. They walked slowly and alongside each other, the edges of their hands brushing every now and then.
"So, the train sticker on the handle," she said, looking at the overhead compartments, "is it a Thomas sticker? Or just a regular train sticker?"
Tangerine scoffed and rolled his eyes. "It came in his sticker book, but it's just a regular blue train — not one of his stupid characters."
"I don't think it's stupid," she told him. "I mean, I like when Lemon talks about Thomas to explain how he understands people and their behaviors. It's sweet — a little endearing. Plus, it helps me understand him better as well. Given our kind of lives, it's hard to get to know people well. To understand them."
Tangerine looked down at his feet, feeling a little bad about how mean he'd been about the Thomas talk now. He always was hard on Lemon, but it was only because they were in such a dangerous and stressful line of work, and he constantly worried about his brother because of that.
"Lemon is..." Tangerine hesitated before continuing. "It's always been Lemon and I. Grew up in the same orphanage, we did. I was always rough around the edges because of that, I figure, but not Lemon. He's always been the more tolerable — nicer, easy to talk to, sweet like you said. People always like him better and they should."
"Hey," Kliment said, smiling softly up at him as they continued to walk. "You're pretty likable yourself, Vitamin C."
Tangerine scoffed in amusement. "You fucking hate me, Princess."
"No," she told him softly, "I don't."
If she really hated him, the moment her brother died, she'd have knocked Tangerine and Lemon out, locked them in a bathroom, and gotten off at the last stop, leaving them to the mercy of her father.
For a moment, as Tangerine looked down at her, he thought his heart might have done something as pathetic as skip a beat all over something like her admitting she didn't hate him. He could see in her eyes that she wasn't lying, either. Her light brown eyes really were beautiful, he thought.
After a moment, he cleared his throat. "Well, that's a good thing then, 'cause I don't hate you, either."
"Could've fooled me," she mumbled.
They were in between two train cars, standing where a luggage closet and the bathroom were. Being as they were alone, Tangerine had no reason for moving so close to her, his chest nearly brushing hers as he spoke lowly.
"Love, you vex me like no one I've ever met, you test my patience, you make me want to do unspeakable things to teach you not to talk to me the way you do," Tangerine said, leaning in and letting his lips brush her cheek. He had to refrain from grinning wickedly when he heard her take in a breath. "But I don't hate you, Kliment."
No one outside her family has ever used her name before, and it sounded perfect falling from Tangerine's lips. Kliment couldn't tear her eyes away from his mouth, wondering how far she'd have to push him to act on those unspeakable things he wanted to do.
Her brother was dead and here she was getting distracted by a man named after a goddamn fruit. How pathetic of her. And she wasn't the only one feeling pathetic.
"What are you doing to me, Princess?" Tangerine asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Klim moved her hand to his and then slid it up his wrist, over the gold chain around it, and up his arm, taking her time as she felt his toned arm, looking up at him innocently as she did so. "We don't have the time for me to do all the things I want to do to you."
"Is that so?" he questioned, following the movement as Kliment wet her lips with her tongue. "Then let's find ourselves a thief and a killer so that you can find the time."
It was torture for both of them as Tangerine stepped back and put distance between them. Then they went back to searching the economy cars, looking high and low for the case full of money. This time, when their hands brushed, Kliment found herself wrapping her pinky around his, a light blush rising to her cheeks when his lips turned up in a small smile and he pulled her closer to his side by her finger.
They had no luck as the pair stepped out of the last of the economy cars without the case, ready to check the first-class ones. But Tangerine's phone buzzed with a call. They came to a stop, and Kliment could only listen to his side of the conversation as Tangerine answered with a heavy sigh.
"Hello," he greeted, listening to whatever yet another henchman said to him. He asked why he and Lemon stepped off the train. "Wanted some fresh air."
As the man on the other end replied, Klim heard the sound of something sliding behind them. She looked over her shoulder and was surprised to see a man several years older than her hiding in the luggage closet. His own phone was clutched to his chest, so she figured he was standing there for privacy on his own phone call.
His eyebrows shot up, disappearing behind a tan bucket hat. Klim hadn't seen him on the train yet — she would've remembered the blonde man with thick black glasses and a teal windbreaker, all of which looked quite unstylish paired together.
Tangerine, who hadn't noticed the man, began fussing on the phone. "I didn't realize I was gettin' a babysitter to come cut my bollocks. I'm a professional."
"We're making sure the case and his children are perfectly safe. Can I please go do my job now?" he asked, his tone turning condescending.
Whatever was said next, Tangerine cut him off completely, hanging up and putting his phone away while saying, "Oh, very kind of you. Thank you very much."
Tangerine sighed once again and caught his reflection in the mirror across from the bathroom door. Much to Kliment's amusement, he leaned in to smooth down his stupid mustache and fix his hair. A moment later, his eyes finally slid to the right and he spotted the man in the compartment, flinching backward into Kliment as he did.
"Fuck me! Jesus Christ!" he swore, looking at the man with wide eyes. When he heard Kliment's little laugh, he set his glare on her for a moment.
The man spoke while gesturing to Tangerine. "It's very rude, talking on the phone, on the train. In Japan."
"This rude enough for ya, ya fucking prick?" Tangerine spat while yanking the curtain shut, hiding him away. Then he took Kliment's wrist to pull her along. "Shove that fuckin' hat up your fuckin' asshole, you hear me?"
"I like bucket hats," Klim told him with an amused grin. "They're making a comeback."
"Look at your stupid smile," he said, giving himself a reason to look at her lips. "You knew that fucker was in there, didn't ya?"
Kliment nodded honestly. "Seeing you jump like that was worth it."
"You're gonna be the death of me," he muttered while continuing to pull her along.
When they entered the first-class area, Kliment looked around longingly. The plush leather seats were huge and could even lean back all the way like a bed so that the passengers could sleep. There were warm towels and blankets, and a sign informed them of a bar at the very end of them.
"We should've sprung for seats here," Kliment said while looking around for the briefcase.
"I knew we should've got an upgrade, fuck all," he said miserably. But then Tangerine glanced over his shoulder and spotted a young girl dressed in pink rather than the briefcase. He instantly put his hand up and faced them. "I beg your pardon, sorry. I wasn't aware there was a young lady present."
Kliment snorted, prepared to make a joke about how Tangerine never treated her like a lady. But her words died on her tongue as she finally looked away from the man and at the supposed young lady.
Gedeon, dressed in a pleated skirt, sweater vest, and tie all colored pink, looked at her sister with shock. Well, her expression hardly shifted, but Kliment knew her well enough to know she was shocked. And Kliment's expression matched hers. Neither sister had a fucking clue the other was on the train.
Tangerine was oblivious to this short interaction as he started to walk on before doubling back to ask Gedeon and the man next to her — the one who bumped into the snack cart — if they could help them. "Yeah, you didn't happen to see someone come by with a silver briefcase, did ya? There's a little train sticker by the handle."
After a beat, the man sat straighter and opened his mouth, but Gedeon beat him to it, speaking in a posh British accent rather than the Russian one her siblings used. "Actually, yeah. Um, a man with black-framed glasses had it. He went that way," she said, pointing back to the way they came from.
Tangerine let out a loud, annoyed sigh, realizing the prick from the luggage closet was who they were looking for. "Thank you, love," he said before stalking off. "That fucking bastard."
Kliment didn't follow right away, sharing a look with her sister as they studied each other for the first time in four years. The youngest went to say something, but her companion was calling after her.
"Get a move on, Princess! It's no time to make friends."
"I'll be right back," Kliment whispered while following after Tangerine, knowing Gedeon heard her.
Once she caught up to Tangerine, she couldn't help but tease him. "Since when do you care about how you treat a lady? You've not exactly been a gentleman the last few hours."
"Oh, darling, that's because you make me want to be anything but a gentleman," he shot back, not hiding how his eyes slid down her form, appreciating the little black dress she was stuck in for the time being. If he were a gentlemen, he'd have offered her his blazer hours ago to cover up all that exposed skin.
"Fair point," she managed to say, glad he went back to searching and missed how her face heated up. It was the second time she'd blushed in his presence, and she wasn't a fan of the new development.
Tangerine was furious as he searched for the idiot that got past them by accident. There was nothing Kliment could say to calm him down — not that she wanted him to. She was just as anxious to get to the bottom of this and stop the man that thought he could steal from the White Death's daughter.
While passing back through the heavily branded Momonga car, Kliment did her best to not get distracted by the bright pink and blue lights. The first time walking through, Tangerine laughed at how excited she got by the entertaining family car that was playing music and showing episodes of the cartoon on little screens.
Now, they didn't have time for the giant Momomon mascot that was standing in the middle of the aisle, blocking their path. Whoever was inside was trying to sell them some of the stuffed animals on the cart with them. Tangerine roughly shoved Momomon aside and pulled Klim with him.
"No, no, no. I ain't got the time or the patience, let alone the interest," he complained.
While passing the cart, Kliment's fingers wrapped around a blue character toy she didn't recognize. No, she didn't watch the show, but Lemon did, so maybe he'd like it. Once they were past, she showed Tangerine what she stole with a pleased smile on her face.
"Fucking hell," was all he said, rolling his eyes at her antics.
The two were headed toward the door, but the sound of a high-pitched giggle seemed to follow after them. They looked over their shoulders to see Momomon walking with them. Tangerine scowled and pushed Klim ahead of him.
"Are you following us?" he asked. And when Momomon kept tailing them, Tangerine came to a sudden stop and held out his hand clutching his phone to keep the distance between them. "Stop!"
Next thing Kliment knew, the stuffed animal was out of her hand as Tangerine hurled it at the mascot as hard as he could. "Asshole."
A high-pitched, "Ow!" came from the person in the mascot, who stayed back this time. Tangerine grabbed Kliment's hand and dragged her out of the family car quickly, continuing to hate everything about this train ride but her.
The two of them picked up the pace a little more, knowing they couldn't quite run without drawing attention to themselves from either other passengers or the employees on board. When they reached the quiet car, both knew something happened in their absence.
The pink glasses meant to be covering Vasili's eyes were strewn on the floor, and Lemon was laying face down on the table. Worried that he was dead like Vasili, Tangerine rushed over.
"Shit," he muttered, pulling his brother upright. When he saw that Lemon wasn't dead or bleeding from his eyes, relief washed over him. Lemon was just knocked out and sporting a few cuts and bruises on his face. "Oh, thank god."
As Tangerine pat Lemon's face lightly to try and rouse him, the unconscious one only let out low groans. "For a minute there... Jesus Christ, you had a bit of a bosh, pal."
"He'll be okay," Kliment said, crouching down to get the glasses. Lemon was muttering groggily, not really right enough to make sense.
Klim slid into the seat next to her brother and made him look proper again, setting the glasses on his face. Then she looked back at Tangerine, noticing that he'd removed his tie and unbuttoned his collared shirt, figuring he'd need more freedom of movement if it came to a fight.
Of course, Kliment wasn't really thinking about the practicality of it. She was thinking about the patch of his smooth chest she could now see, catching sight of a gold chain around his neck when the light hit the metal.
"All right," Tangerine said, offering Kliment his hand to help her out of the seat. "Five stations to Kyoto. Better get tickety-boo."
"Tickety-boo?" Kliment repeated with an amused smile on her face. "That's not a real word. You made that shit up."
Tangerine rolled his eyes and squeezed her side before pushing her along. "Get a move on, Princess. We've got a prick to find."
As the pair walked through the second car, not seeing the man, Tangerine removed his blazer and folded it neatly over his arm. Then he grabbed the gun that was holstered behind his back and hid it underneath the piece of clothing. He was ready to end this, not caring how many witnesses were on the train.
At the divider compartment between the second and first car, Tangerine and Klim walked forward only to run straight into the automatic door when it didn't open for them despite stepping on the sensor. Klim rubbed her shoulder with a frown, and they looked at the door. A golf club was shoved through it, and on the other side, there was a stack of luggage, meaning the door couldn't slide open as usual. When Tangerine tugged on the club, it didn't budge.
"What, is he MacGyver?" Kliment asked, studying the setup.
Tangerine took in a deep breath before stepping back onto the second car. He looked around for a moment before spotting a sleeping child with her head on a stuffed animal. As he snatched it, the toy let out a squeak which didn't wake the child, luckily.
Once back at the door, Tangerine shoved the toy against his gun, ignoring how Kliment giggled when it let out a 'Momomon!' When he fired his gun, the sound was muffled by the stuffed animal that went flying in a cloud of stuffing and feathers. It did the trick, as the stack of luggage was knocked over, and the door slid open halfway.
"He's here somewhere," Tangerine said, entering the car slowly.
Kliment was the first one to spot the thief sitting in a chair, his back to them. She nudged Tangerine's side and whispered to him. "Bucket hat," she said, pointing to the halfway point of the car.
Tangerine crept up behind him and crouched down, keeping his voice low. "All right, game's up, big boy. Where is the case? Tell me, and I promise I'll only shoot you enough—"
"Wait, Tan!" Klim said suddenly, seeing the smutty romance novel in the man's hand.
The man turned at that moment, looking up at the two with wide eyes. He was wearing the black glasses and the bucket hat, but he certainly wasn't who they were looking for.
"Whoa, whoa, um... is - is this the sex stuff?" the new man asked nervously, his eyes on the gun.
"What?" Kliment asked, sharing a confused look with Tangerine.
Before he could ask the man where the one who gave him the hat and glasses went, a loud sound startled everyone. Up by the bathroom, firecrackers were going off on the floor, making people shriek and the man closest to them jump back.
"Twat! Shit," Tangerine cursed, running to try and catch the man that succeeded in tricking them.
The man, who was now the proud owner of a bucket hat, leaned forward to watch him run before glancing up at Kliment. "I - I do love an accent."
She was clueless to the American thief that escaped behind her, running through the cars they'd already checked. All she did was nod in agreement with the man, both of them objectifying Tangerine from afar. He looked damn good with just the waistcoat hugging his leaner frame.
"Yeah, me too, my dude."